Saving Seafood

North Carolina State University researchers discover “fluffy net” can capture underwater microplastics

August 19, 2026 — A study recently published in Science Advances, funded by the National Science Foundation, found using a biopolymer mesh in a web-like formation – similar to that of seaweed – can capture oceanic microplastics in both freshwater and seawater environments as a powerful anti-pollution tool.

Four researchers from Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.-based North Carolina State University’s department of chemical and biomedical engineering published the study: “Artificial Neptune balls: Superadhesive biomimetic networks for broad-size microplastics capture and removal.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NYS teachers take on microplastics with snail-inspired robot

August 11, 2026 — On a rainy morning in late July, Professor Sunny Jung asked a group of New York state schoolteachers to consider the biology of the aquatic snail.

With only one foot, the snail can move and feed, and they do it with an efficient undulating motion that can draw in particles from a distance 10 times greater than their body length.

“They are very efficient at pulling in water from the surface without sucking in the bulk fluid,” said Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, at a workshop for New York state teachers offered by a team of researchers and staff at Cornell, New York Sea Grant (NYSG), Princeton University and the University of Michigan. Now in its second year, the program gives teachers the tools to apply Cornell research in their classrooms, with lesson plans and hands-on materials they can share with their learners.

The workshop’s lessons center on the application of Jung’s research to a problem of increasing concern: the proliferation of microplastics in waterways. Inspired by the undulating movement of the snail, Jung designed a simple robotic system that can pull surface water in and filter microplastics out. With a team of collaborators, the group put the mechanism on a robot they named Mollusca and created both lab-scale prototypes and a build-your-own version for schools.

As Jung presented the research, the wires, circuit boards, motors and many 3D-printed components of the Mollusca robots lay in disassembled piles on a back table. Before day’s end, the teachers would build the robots, test them in a kiddie pool filled with small pieces of plastic called nurdles, and troubleshoot just like students, just like researchers, turning the conference room in Upson Hall into a makeshift robotics lab.

“The Sea Grant trainings are the best I’ve ever done,” said Emily Colletta, head of the gifted and talented program at North Tonawanda Intermediate School in North Tonawanda, New York, who was attending the workshop for the second time. “They’re super interactive, and it’s always local, which makes it easier to integrate and for the kids to benefit. And they always provide us with hands-on materials we can take back to our classrooms. It’s pretty special.”

Read the full article at the Cornell Chronicle

How Blue Sharks Spread Plastic Pollution Across The Ocean

September 5, 2025 — The open ocean may seem infinite… but it is not immune to human impact. Every year, millions of tons of plastic and synthetic fibers enter the seas, breaking down into tiny particles that move with currents, accumulate in sediments, and enter marine food webs. Recent research shows that one of the ocean’s most iconic predators, the blue shark (Prionace glauca), may play an unexpected role in this cycle.

Found throughout temperate and tropical waters, blue sharks are one of the most abundant shark species caught as bycatch in tuna longline fisheries. Their feeding habits are broad — they eat fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans — covering hundreds or even thousands of miles in a single year. With such a wide-ranging diet (both in what they eat but also where they eat it), they’re exposed to particles in the water column as well as through the actual prey they consume. A recent study carried out by a team of researchers led by Chenxuan Du of Shanghai Ocean University, China, analyzed blue shark intestines and revealed both plastic and non-plastic particles in every section of the scroll-shaped organ, with the highest concentration in the posterior region. On average, a single intestine contained roughly 11 plastic fibers and 48 non-plastic fibers. Fibers dominated the found mixture, making up more than 95 percent of the particles identified. Plastics were primarily polyester and polyethylene terephthalate, while non-plastics included rayon and cotton, materials known to commonly shed during laundry wash cycles and be carried out to our big, blue ocean through the numerous river systems covering our planet. The size of these fibers varied, ranging from about 0.004 inches to over 8 inches (102 micrometers to 8.1 millimeters), highlighting that while they are small enough to be ingested by other organisms, they are also large enough to remain intact during digestion. Sharks can then excrete these particles back into the ocean miles from where they swallowed them, turning them into unexpected couriers of pollution.

Read the full article at Forbes

Researchers make alarming discovery after analyzing stomach of deep-sea fish that washed ashore on US coast: ‘They are not picky eaters’

June 16, 2025 — Scientists made a disturbing discovery inside the stomach of a deep-sea fish that washed ashore on an Oregon beach.

What’s happening?

Back in April, Seaside Aquarium made a Facebook post announcing that a longnose lancetfish had washed up on a nearby beach. The long, serpent-like fish with a mouth full of fangs is known as food for predators like sharks, tuna, and other longnose lancetfish. This particular fish measured about five feet long.

The post also shared photos of what was found when researchers analyzed the content of the fish’s stomach. They found items standard to the fish’s diet, like fish and squid. But they also found something more sinister: bits of plastic.

“We also know that they are not picky eaters,” wrote Seaside Aquarium. “They are known to eat over 90 different species of marine life, including each other, and unfortunately, are attracted to plastics.”

Read the full article at the TCD

Washed ashore and reborn: Fishing gear and plastics get new life

June 10, 2025 — Commercial fisheries entities are collaborating with a rising star in plastics recycling, Net Your Problem, to keep thousands of pounds of worn-out fishing gear and washed-ashore plastic debris out of landfills and get it refurbished into useful products.

“Fishing gear doesn’t last forever, but it also doesn’t have to go to waste,” said Tim Fitzgerald, chief sustainability officer at American Seafoods, part of the catcher-processor sector of the Alaska pollock industry. “As we continuously improve our nets and gear, it is encouraging to know that the gear that has served one useful purpose can now serve another one,” he said.

American Seafoods collaborated on May 28 with Arctic Storm Management Group, Coastal Villages Region Fund, Glacier Fish Company, and 150 volunteers for an inaugural net recycling day at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 9, each spending several hours to clean one of their groundfish nets, which yield on average 20,000 pounds of plastic.

“The nets are expensive enough that we take very good care of them,” said Fitzgerald. “We try to use them as long as possible.” As for the event itself, “we are really excited about it,” he said.

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

US senator warns of warming, plastic threats to world’s oceans and fisheries

May 9, 2025 — U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) took to the Senate floor 7 May to warn his colleagues of the threat the warming climate and plastic pollution poses to the world’s oceans and fisheries.

“In the 10 minutes that it takes me to give this speech, the oceans will absorb 4,000 Hiroshima detonations’ worth of heat,” Whitehouse said. “That is why seawater off the Florida Keys hit jacuzzi temperatures. That is why measuring devices along our coasts show a foot of sea level rise already. That is why fish species are moving about and fisheries are collapsing. That is why the world’s coral reefs are bleaching out – over 80 percent of the world’s reefs hit in the last ocean heating surge caused by fossil fuel.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource